Thursday, December 28, 2000

The issues that we're dealing with require details -- details on the geographic maps, details on specific issues -- because we don't want to end up saying a positive answer and then once we go and inquire about something, they say ... 'It's not going to open' (for discussion). Then you have an explosion. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, explaining why his side wanted more information before responding to U.S. President Bill Clinton's mideast peace proposals.

• The U.S. Labor Department is expected to release a report on weekly jobless claims.
• A federal court hearing is scheduled in Denver on a request by Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, to stop his appeal process and face execution.
• A parole hearing is scheduled in Frontera, California, for Susan Atkins, a follower of Charles Manson.
• Christians mark Holy Innocents' Day, on which King Herod ordered a massacre of children in Bethlehem.
• Iowa observes the anniversary of its admission in 1846 to the United States.

• On Friday, December 29, the Touchstone Energy All-College Basketball Tournament 2000 begins in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
• On Saturday, December 30, the AFC-NFC wildcard football playoffs begin.
• On Sunday, December 31, Namahage is celebrated in Japan. Men disguised as devils go door-to-door, asking, "Any good for nothing fellow hereabout?" in an attempt to change sluggards' ways.
• On Monday, January 1, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, observes the traditional Mummers Parade.
• On Tuesday, January 2, the University of Florida plays the University of Miami in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana.

• In 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down in a feud with President Andrew Jackson.
• In 1908, an earthquake struck Messina, Sicily, killing almost 80,000 people.
• In 1937, composer Maurice Ravel died in Paris, France.
• In 1945, the U.S. Congress recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."
• In 1968, the Beatles' "White Album" reached No. 1 on the charts.
• In 1973, writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," a look at the Soviet prison system.
• In 1974, more than 5,200 people died in a Pakistani earthquake.
• In 1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American test-tube baby, was born in Virginia.